Prayer of hope

My daughter, in her blog, shares some profound thoughts via a prayer written by Oscar Romero. On this Mother's Day it reminds me too of the dreams and intent of the parent. We parents get to witness some of the flowering of seeded potential as our kids grow. But we will never see it all, no we may never see the end results, and we cannot do everything.

Still, the beauty is that while I as parent work and minister, I get to trust the master builder to be messiah and grace, doing whatever s/he desires to build his/her kingdom – in my kids, and in this wide world.

A Prayer of Hope
by Oscar Romero
It helps now and then, to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection, no pastoral visit brings wholeness, no program accomplishes the Church's mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about. We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further developments. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are the workers, not the master builders, ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own. Amen.